QUEEN

I was a Queen fan right from when "Seven Seas Of Rhye" was released. I bought that long before it was a hit, and thought it exceptionally different, what with the superb harmonies, mingled with the heavy rock style. However, the first Queen album I bought was "Night At The Opera". Then I worked my way backwards. This, their debut, is a more than decent effort and almost worth 4 stars. Most of the tracks are excellent. The opener is, in fact, nothing special, and is only melodically adequate, but the superb May trademark guitarwork rescues it. The highlights for me are from tracks 2 - 6 inclusive. All well crafted with wonderful guitar running through them, ethereal vocals from Freddie, and tight playing from Roger and John. The songs had an innocence that was gradually lost on later albums. It is almost an asexual album, as indeed it was probably intended to be, Freddie sounding like a mixture of genders at times. Weakest track without a doubt is "Son And Daughter", a surprisingly tuneless heavier piece, that plods, and sounds like any other heavy rock band in general. Then comes "Jesus" which, although I am an atheist, is enjoyable, followed by the instrumental version of "Seven Seas Of Rhye", which is a good way to end, Freddie showing here that he really can play piano properly. (My mother, who had had piano lessons herself, thought he was quite gifted as a player, praise indeed from her,as the only other keyboard player she liked was Rick Wakeman!) This is not essential, but is a good slice of history, showing, as it does, how Queen started out, before popularity took its toll. 3.5 stars really.